v. [Echoic: usually depreciatory.] intr. To make an instrumental or vocal sound resembling these syllables. Hence Too-tooing vbl. sb.; so also Too-too adv. and sb., Too-tooer.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., The Theatre, 25. Tang goes the harpsichord, too-too the flute.
1828. Moir, Mansie Wauch, xi. (1849), 74. The old flute was for Benjie, poor thing, too-tooing on.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Public Dinners. The singers … begin too-tooing most dismally.
1840. Thackeray, Pict. Rhapsody, Concl., Wks. 1900, XIII. 345. Punchman is tootooing on the pipes, and banging away on the drum. Ibid. (1843), Irish Sk. Bk., xxviii. An unequal and disagreeable tootooing on a horn.
1862. Miss Yonge, C’tess Kate, ix. Kate … came up too-tooing through her hand with all her might.
a. 1884. Calverley, Verses & Transl., To Mrs. Goodchild, x. Checked by that absurd Too-too [of a person practising on a horn].
